One of the challenges in providing cloud computing resources as a service to computer users is measuring usage of those computing resources by the users. Computing resources can include processing resources, application resources, storage resources and/or network resources. A user, or a group of users, generally is permitted to use the computing resources within specified limits and/or is billed based on actual usage.
Measuring usage of a computing resource, such as processing time, application usage, storage consumption and network resource utilization. involves detecting when usage begins, a user associated with that usage, a type or other characteristics of that usage, and detecting when that usage ends. Such measurements can impact the quality of the usage experienced by the user. Also, in a large computer system, such measurements can result in generation of a large amount of data to be processed.